Exhibition.

Well.... to say the least, I know I picked the right profession.  As we were getting ready for our exhibit, one of my friends said I looked like such a teacher.  I was thrilled.  As everyone else was decked out in their wacky exhibition outfits, I wore my teacher clothes.  Haha.  I also know I picked the right profession because I don't think I ever want to be a part of a gallery again...  It was a great experience, and I wouldn't trade it for the world, butttt I am not sure it was meant for me.  I don't like having my work displayed for everyone and their brother and sister to see (and critique).  Alas, I am hoping it might sell.  Our work will be up for the next week, and maybe I have a chance at getting some extra mula!

A few of us spent the night in together, and I couldn't have made a better choice.  I'm pretty sure that I'm getting sick... and it sucks to be sick when all I want to do is go out and celebrate, but oh well.

Today we are going to go to a gem shop for a few hours, and then head back for our last night in Mildura.  We are probably going to hit the town for one last night.  It is so sad thinking of leaving all of these awesome friends I've made.  I am excited that I will have connections across the US when I get home :)  We keep on saying that we are going to meet up in the middle of all of our homes, which would be Nebraska!  Abby lives in Nebraska and has plenty of room for us all!!  That would be a blast.  I am also going to hall my cookies all the way to LA to visit all of the Cali girls that I've met!  Leaving is sad, but we will have a blast when we get to see each other again!!

I probably wont have internet for the next few days, so I will probably not post again until I am home again!  After the trek back to Melbourne tomorrow morning (6am!!), we will have the afternoon to run around the city!  We are gong to an Australian football game (which is like a mix of rugby, soccer, team hand ball, and football - essentially a smorgasbord).  We will probably hit the town in Melbourne as well, and then I will be headed back to the States early Sunday morning.  Whew... I have my work cut out for me!

I cannot wait to see all of your purdyyy faces, and share everything that I've done (or bought haha).  I love each of you dearly and will see you each soon!

Wrapping up

Needless to say, the morning after the 4th of July was a bit rough.  We finished editting all of my portfolio images and the image for my exhibition!  I am so excited to be done.  We had half a day at the university, and then I went to the offices in the city for some internet.  After class we all had leftovers from last night, and did some shopping! 

Everything has been wrapping up quite nicely the past few days!  We had the morning off the following day (yesterday), so Abby and I wondered around the city to grab some breakfast and headed to the offices to steal some Internet!  I got to talk my mom and dad for the first time since I've been here!  YAYY!!  After hanging out for the offices for awhile, we grabbed some lunch and a few souvenirs (which I cannot say what they are haha).

We headed back to the place right next door to the offices, Stefanos, where we are having our exhibition.  I got to see my exhibition image in print form for the first time!  It looks okay, but I am going to try and sell it.  Hopefully it will pay for the dinner I had that night!  We ate at Stephanos.  I payed more for a meal than I will ever pay again in my entire life!  We had a five course meal with three bottles of wine split between the seven of us, and it was absolutely delicious!  I am hoping to get a copy of the menu one of us got with our ticket.   After dinner (four hours later - woah), we headed back to our hostel to hang out a bit and head to bed. 

The following morning we had to write a blurb about the program and pick a photo for one of our assignments.  I am so glad to be completely DONE with everything, except for the assignment I have to do for Meredith.  I am not sure when I am going to get those done.  I suppose I should do them soon, while I have people I can talk to about them here.  Ugh.

Next we are heading to go get Abby a tatoo!!!!  I would totally get one, if I didn't tell Kamron that I would get my first one with him.  So far we have five people getting tattoos.  The instructor from last year bet our instructors that he would have more tattoo getters, but we are winning!!  YAY!

Well, that is pretty much it for now.  We have our exhibition tonight, and tomorrow we are heading to Woodsies Shop.  They have a bunch of jems and such.  We are done with all of our assignments for the course though!!

I send my love and pray for my exhibiton tonight!

Proud to be an Amuerican!!!

Today we headed back to the university to edit our images some more based off of the feedback we got at our critique (the little I actually received).  I am ready to pull out my hair with freakin’ Photoshop!  I think I am almost done with most of my images, but we will see.  I cannot wait to bring my portfolio back and show everyone!  Maybe I will hang some of them up in the living room!!  Haha, Joycey and Sam, hopefully y’all won’t mind!

After the university, we ran around the city some, and picked up some groceries for our cook out!!! We celebrated 4th of July American style in Australia!!!  We are having hamburgers, hot dogs (with ONLY American condiments), salad, chips & dip, potato salad, brownie sundaes, an American mix CD, and beer.  Nothing better!  Oh – and sparklers with poppers!  And the fun began!!  Woot woot!
I lost track of the number of drinks I had, but I slept soundly!!!  We have some crazy pictures and videos, but it's always good to have documentation of the evening.  The food was great, and the company was even better!  It will not be the same without everyone next year!  I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th at home!

Road to recovery

Luckily we had the day off on Sunday.  It was a perfect day for relaxation.  It was raining,  We wondered around the city a bit, spent some more money, and learned how to play footy, Australia’s football, from one of our instructors.  We spent the rest of the day watching American classic movies, and I crocheted like a grandma (Haha, Melbug) :)  I headed to bed kind of late, because of all of our movie watching, but oh well!

Critiquing

Traumatizing…yet once again.  We each had five image that we had to present to our instructors in front of everyone in the program.  I don’t know how awesome my photos were, because no one really sad anything.  I suppose that isn’t too bad, right?  At least it wasn’t too harsh.  We finished up pretty late, so we went back to the hostel for dinner and drank a bit and went out to celebrate!  Nothing’s better than a Saturday night out on the town!  We went to a couple of bars, and we ended up at a club.  I have never done shots out in public before, and I did three… two tequilas and one jam donut.  The. End.  Haha. 

Photoshop overload

After hanging out and running errands most of Thursday, we had a half day of work.  We uploaded all of our images to the desktops at the university and started processing our images.  We had to decide on ten images to work on and five out of the ten to have critiqued the following day.  I’ve decided that my brain doesn’t like Photoshop.  I need to work on that a bit, especially if I want to be able to pass this course.  After my brain was on overload, we headed back to the hostel to grab lunch.  I headed to the university offices in the city, so I could talk to one of my instructors about writing blog for one of the local new stations.  Of course I took it on.  I just don’t know how to say no.

While at the offices I was able to upload the rest of my images and update my blog (as you could see).  Now it is time to update everything, again!  I was planning on staying in fore the night to relax a bit more, but I went out instead.  We spent the night bar hopping.  We also found this alley with some neat graffiti on our way to play bumper cars.  We were able to ride multiple times… the guy noticed that we were all a bit buzzed, so he just went along with it.  We decided to walk around a bit, and then I headed to bed!

Holy Gi-moly!

I know I've said this before, but dang!  I just spent FOREVER typing up my blog from the past few days, and editing what I already had finished.  I am ready to chuck my laptop out the window!  AHH!!  Please forgive me for any spelling or grammar errors or anything that might not make sense.  I am heading towards delirium, but I am FINALLY done!  Yay!  I will keep everyone posted as the week goes on.  I still have no internet where I am staying, but at least I have it at the university and local cafes now!

My trip was a blast, and I hope you enjoy my posts and check out some of my photos at my shutterfly account.

I send oodles and oodles of love!

Mildura bound

We had to get up early to clean up and head back to Mildura.  I cannot believe we cleaned up so quickly!  I had my first taste of Vegimite... I don't recommend it.  It's supposed to be the Australian hang over cure.  It made me want to throw up!

But we eventualy made our way back to Mildura!  We made a few stops on the way, and Rachel taught me how to crochet a beanie!  I know have an Australian made beanie.  It looks pretty sweet... I need practice, but it was fun.  It also helped to pass the time, and we had plenty of it.  I'm sitting here trying to remember all we did on the bus, but I cannot remember.  Maybe it was fatigue?  Oh well.

We eventually made it back to Mildura, where I promptly went to McDonalds for some wifi, and I messaged Kamron.  I headed to bed early that night.

Thursday, we had a free day!  YAY!  Unfortunately, I locked my key in my room, so I had to wait around until it was unlocked before I could leave.  Once I was able to get back into my room, I went shopping!  Yay for spending money!  Haha.  Just kidding!  I did spend a little bit of money, but everything was on sale or from a the local thrift store.  I eventually made my way back to the hostel, and a group of us headed down to the Murray River to see the sunset.  I ended up getting a couple of decent pictures out of the deal too.

By the time we headed back to the hostel our instructors were working on some dinner.  We had a lot of food left over from the previous week, so dinner was provided last night, which was nice :)  Of course I had a few beers, but a few of us played some Texas Hold'em and Cheat (which is a lot like BS).  We played until pretty late, and then I headed to bed.

Epic last night!!!

I decided not to get up and hike to see the sunrise, because I would have plenty of hiking to do for the day!  All of us had a few options for the day: we could hike up to St. Mary's Summit (one of the tallest mountains in Southern Australia) or we could go on a couple of shorter walks that would be less rigorous.  Of course, I decided to climb to St. Mary's Summit!  It was tough.  Our group calledb ourselves Team Bad Ass!  Haha.  Naturally we got of course for a bit, and ended up having to bush walk our way through these trees.  Ouch.  It was very much worth it though!  We got to see two summits!  We should have known we were of course when we had to shimmy up a few rocks, but go Team Bad Ass for being awesome!!  The hike ended up being about eight miles total, and man it was a long day.  I luckily packed a victory beer with my lunch, which was well deserved.  I let everyone have a victory sip, because I though it was only fair to share. 

On our way back down, we saw a kangaroo with it's joey popping out!  It was soooo cute!  All I could think about was Kanga and Roo off of Winnie the Pooh.  I got some pretty good pictures of it too!  Unfortunately I couldn't get too many pictures from the hike, beacuse it wasn't all that safe to have Mel's camera out while we were running up the mountain (your welcome, Melanie.  Hehe).  When we were done, I bought myself a well deserved cappuccino.  While we drove back to camp, we got to watch the sunset from the back of the bus.

We spent most of the night just haning out.  I made some mix CDs for Peter.  Later on Peter taught us how to make Aboriginal bread on an open fire, which was pretty cool!  Maybe I can do that at home?  Haha.  While each of us made a jack (that's what the bread is called), Doug (our awesome bus driver) and Neil barbequed some kangaroo.  Rachel and I prepared our amazing salad with all of the spare veggie we had left.  Yumm!  Haha.  We had to eat dinner without any cutlery in order to get the true Aboriginal expereince.

After we ate and had a few more beers, Peter taught us an Aboriginal River Dance.  We ended up splitting into two groups and competing.  There was one portion where we competed one on one.  I just want y'all to imagine me (awkward me), dancing... omgosh.  It was aweful.  Just about as aweful as having to sing around the campfire.  Improv just isn't my thing.  Even if it isn't improv, it isn't my thing.  Haha.

Eventually I was put out of my misery, and we sat around the campfire and drank a little more.  It was already pretty late, so I headed to bed soon after.

Back on the busss

We spent less time on the bus than we did yesterday, but we were still driving around a lot!  After I got ready to leave in the morning I helped with making lunches.  We drove to Sacred Canyon first, and Peter and Neil told us some Aboriginal stories.  I was not about to take another rock, after the stories they told us.  Peter said that he was going to "smoke" all of us, so we would be cleansed.  Hopefully that will get rid of my curse from the didgeradoo.  I cannot remember if I mentioned this before, but supposedly if a woman plays the didgeradoo, then she won't be able to have children... what?!  I was almost floored when Peter told me this!  I am sure it is just one of those superstitious things though - I willlll have children!

The rest of the day was fairly simple.  We drove through two gorges, Bunyeroo and Brachina, where we were able to walk around a bit and take some photos.  We stopped for lunch at Razorback Lookout.  It was ridiculously windy, and I sat in a pricker bush when I was trying to take a picture!  Talk about fun stuff!

The rest of the night was pretty relaxing as well.  We had barbeque for dinner (which is just grilling out here - weird), and had a few beers - nothing new.  I headed to bed early, because I had a long day of hiking ahead of me!

What a beautiful start to a beautiful day

After making myself get out of bed, which was definitely accomplishing a great feat, I grabbed a quick breakfast.  While everyone else was still in bed, Shayne and one of the other girls, Stephanie, were about to hike up a hill behind our site.  I decided to join them, and I am very glad I did.  The view was breath taking, and I got a personal tutorial on photography, which was nice, since I’m a bit lacking in that area.  I think I got some pretty good shots, maybe something portfolio worthy.  We shall see.

We headed back to our site just in time to grab our bags and head out with everyone else for the day.  Our first stop was at a cemetery – kind of creepy, but I might have gotten some decent artistic shots.  We also stopped at a town called Blinman, where I got my much needed cappuccino and some pictures as well.  We then headed towards Glass Gorge, where we had lunch.  After lunch, a few played baseball with a rock for a bat.  I decided that it would be best for me to watch because of my lack of hand-eye coordination. 

We spent most of our day driving through the Flinders Ranges, which was beautiful.  While we were driving we made a stop to learn how to take panoramic shots.  They don’t seem all that difficult.  I am excited to learn more!  I’m not very good at taking shots at night, but I am hoping to get better.  We saw a lot of kangaroos and wallabies at dusk today, and we made it back to our accommodation just in time for the sunset.  By the time we made it up the hill behind our site, the sun had just passed over the horizon, but it was just as breathtaking, especially with a beer – thank goodness I grabbed it on my way out.  I just need to work on my night shots. 

After the sunset, we made our way back to camp, for more beers, journal work, and eventually dinner.  I also tried some scotch moonshine from one of my instructors.  His neighbor makes it.  Nothing like broadening your horizons!

On the road again

Continental breakfast in Australia seems to take on a whole new meaning than in America.  First off, you pay for it (in this case 8$) and second off, it’s simply bread, butter, jam, cereal, coffee, and tea.  Talk about some bull shit.  8$ for that… dang.  After grabbing a stellar breakfast, I ran and got a cappuccino (yum… my weakness) with Kim, she’s from LA and awesome!

Then we headed towards Flinders Ranges, we’ve spent hours on the road today.  Abby is my bus buddy.  She’s from Nebraska and is much like me.  We both work on our blogs off and on as we drive, in between our motion sickness spells. 

On our trip, deeper into the Outback, we had to get rid of all of the fruit we brought because of the fruit flies.  We had to toss them before we crossed the checkpoint (later I found out that the other driver with most of our fruit didn’t haha).  At our first bathroom stop, our instructor, Shayne, gave us a task to walk around the fence and whoever came back first with something neat gets a chocolate bar.  Only a few participate, and we (and I use we loosely because I am not included haha) came up with a dried mandarin (aka orange – they don’t call them oranges in Australia), a piece of tubing, a feather, and out other instructor, Rachel, found some plastic netting and stuck it in her hat.  She won.  Lesson of the day: you can all walk the same bath but see something different.

While we were continuing our journey, our instructors passed around some pictures that we were supposed to critique.  It was exciting to actually be on par, even if I didn’t volunteer my ideas.  Typical Rachael, just trying to get by unnoticed with a fear of being wrong.

We finally made it our accommodation a few minutes before dark.  We unpacked the trailers with our luggage and our food for the week.  While some started on dinner, the others (which I was a part of) worked on getting the campfire started.  Peter, our Aboriginal leader, whom I’ve really started to enjoy spending time with, took over, and we were warming up in no time. 

Our accommodation is ten times nicer than I was expecting.  We are provided with linens, but I still slept in my sleeping bag.  It’s way warmer.

After our spaghetti dinner, wish was delicious (partly because I was starving), we sat around the campfire and listen to Peter.  He wrote a beautiful song.  He’s so talented.  Then we went around the campfire while one of the boys, Dan, played guitar, and we each had to sing about journey.  Needless to say that was absolutely traumatizing.  I lack any sort of musical talent, and I’m awful when it comes to any improvisation.  But, I survived, as you can see.  I showered shortly after and headed to bed.

Before Broken Hill & at Broken Hill

Thursday, before we left, we spent the morning digital processing our images.  AKA an overload on Photoshop and some other program that edits photos – very useful, but hard!  Hopefully I will get the hang of it by the end of my trip!

A few of us decided to spend the afternoon exploring the city of Mildura and getting pictures of all of the places we frequented: Coles (the grocery store), the Brewery, Kmart, and … more haha.  We headed back to the hostel to eat some dinner.  After dinner, I headed out with a few other girls to find some wifi at McDonalds.  We closed McDonalds out, but continued to use their wifi outside.  We were going to join the rest of our group at the local nightclub, but they closed at nine.  What?!

Instead we played a drinking game back at the hostel, All Hail the Governor.  If you’ve never played, it was awesome – plus, we were entertained by Leslie.  She was hilarious.  She only had a few glasses of wine, until she was posing with her wine box and glass.  Haha.  Needless to say she was feeling it in the morning we when got up and left for our trip.

Another girl, Becca, woke up and her eyes were swollen.  Ouch.  While the rest of us got our stuff together to head out, Neil took her to the doctor (he’s our dad away from home).  She caught up with us later at a park where we took a pit stop.

We made it to Broken Hill around 2:30pm, where we checked into Mario’s Place.  We explored the city a bit, and then we went to an old mine to get some photos.  Obviously we had to be careful around the site.  One girl slid down a hill of rocks while we were there.  Luckily, she only got a few scratches and bruises.  I think she’s a bit stiff now.  Later on I heard she forgot her wallet back at Mildura as well.  I spotted her for dinner, and I will probably do so for the rest of our trip.

After the mine, we traveled to Silverton, where Mad Max 2 was filmed.  Speaking of Mad Max 2, I accidentally said that Mad Max was like Deliverance… I think.  It’s actually more like Waterworld.  Both are excellent.  I recommend them both – you all should watch them!

Okay, back on task – I got some pretty good shots of the city and of the gorgeous sunset there.  When the sun had finished setting, and we could no longer take any pictures, we headed to the local pub.  Neil had some of us volunteer for the “test.”  You had to pay $2 and tuck the tip of a large funnel in your pants, while balancing a potato on your forehead.  The bartender ran down the line with a bottle of water, pouring water down the funnel.  It was hilarious.  The volunteers did get a shot of beer our of the deal – and wet pants of course. 

After we finished our beers, we headed back to Broken Hill, where we grabbed some dinner and hit up the hotel’s pub.  I headed to bed early, and slept hard, which isn’t surprising after a beer … or two.  Haha.  The “palace” is supposed to haunted, which might explain the wretched dream I had!

Mad Max and Mungo National Park

When I left y’all the other day, we had not yet watched Mad Max, an Australian film starring Mel Gibson.  If you haven’t seen it, it is quite similar to Deliverance, but it is Australian.  Haha.  Needless to say it was pretty good.  Haha.  It was made…  I’m not sure when, but Mel Gibson was young, and I think it was one of his first “big hits.”  After the film, we all headed back to our hostel where we cleaned up, ate, and got ready to go out for Stephanie’s twenty-first (we actually just spent the last while trying to remember all of the drinks and shots she had).  We had a great time, obviously.  I think we decided that she had six drinks and five shots – and we were able to remember all of the names too!  I got her two, because I’m nice and was slightly intoxicated myself.

Unfortunately, Stephanie was not feeling too good in the morning when we got up to go to the Mungo National Park, specifically the China Wall.  In the morning we drove about an hour and a half to the park.  Our guide, Ricky (whom we called Ranger Rick haha), was an Aborigine and had a lot of incite about the land.  Today we were supposed to take no more than twelve pictures on a memory card that our “supervisors” provided.  I spent most of the day switching back and forth between my memory card and the one they gave me.  I have learned a lot about taking photos since I’ve been here.  We were told that we would be slapped silly if we were caught using any of the auto settings on our camera – thus we were taught how to use the other settings. 

Going to the Mungo National Park was pretty much it for today.  When we got back I made dinner and hung out.  After the past few nights, tonight is an optimal chill night.  Tomorrow we are going to process our select images for half of the day, and then we have rest of the day off.  I will probably spend the rest of the day packing and working on my journal, which I’ve been neglecting to work on.  I find it hard to write my blog and work on my journal… ugh.  Friday we leave for our six-day “field trip.”  We will be going to Broken Hill and Flinders Ranges.  I will more than likely not be able to post again, until we get back.  Hopefully Kamron will be coming up then too!  Until then!  I send loads of lovess!!

Where to begin...

So I have now completed two across the world trips... oh for the land down under.  I never ever want to pack a suitcase again!!  Maybe I can just learn how to pack light?  Haha.  I'm thinking that is never going to happen.  Thus, I have packed my bag for what seems to be the millionth time, and I am now back in Australia.  Welcome to the land of no worries, where the beer is plentiful.  My flight from LAX to Melbourne wasn't too bad this time around.  Before my flight even took off, I met up with the people from my program.  They were all pretty cool, even with being exhausted!  I managed to sleep for almost he entire 15 hour flight.  Pretty amazing huh?  I am so glad I got all of that sleep, because I definitely needed it for the following day!

Now I’ve made it to my arrival…  My flight was delayed to begin with, so in addition to customs taking longer than it did the first time around, things continued to go south (no pun intended haha).  The dog stopped at my bag, when I went through customs.  Come to find out my nail polished had exploded in my bag, which they discovered after emptying my bag.  No worries though, luckily my nail polish was in a zip lock bag!  Whew.  Saved – thank goodness.  After making it through customs and meeting the woman who was picking us up, Prue, I tried to make a collect call home – failure, again. 

We made it back to our hotel around noon, and we were given a half-hour to check into our rooms and clean up.  We then met Jeff and another woman (but I cannot remember her name), but she is not all that important to my journey.  Haha.  She’s just the person in charge of the study abroad students at La Trobe University.  Jeff and Prue are the ones that take us to where we need to be, and show us around.

Now that you’ve “met” just about everyone, I can continue.  We met up after our half-hour, and got an introduction to Australia, so to speak, and what we were going to be doing for the day.  Our day began with a walk through of Melbourne’s CBD (city business district), where we went to an Aborigines art museum and the Australian centre for the moving image (acmi).  The ACMI is essentially just videos.  I don’t get it, but is supposedly an Australian thing.  The exhibit is only for June and July this year, so I am privileged to be privy to such excellence!  After looking at the art we picked up snacks to hold us over until dinner.  We actually went down the same street that Kamron, Penn, and I ate at, at my last night here – making me miss everyone from that trip even more (I will let y’all in on a little secret – I will see them soon)!  Grabbing some chips (which is what they call fries), from Grill’d Healthy Burgers hit the spot.  Next we went on the circle tram around the city – it was free.  Oh yes, I’ve remembered something important!  When we were getting “introduced” to Australia when we first arrived, they said that we MUST (absolutely, MUST) pay to ride the tram.  HA!  I laugh in the face of danger (what move?! Hehe). 

Okay.  Back on topic!  Rambling Rachael fits me!  So the circle tram… It was packed!!  We head to let a few go by before the twenty of us could even get on, and then once we actually made it on, a million people got on a few stops later.  The doors almost didn’t shut!  I got to see about ten people almost face plant into the floor of the tram.  And I also forgot to mention that we went to an ally filled with graffiti.  They give the people of the city an ally for graffiti, which I thought was kind of cool.  It’s a neat way to keep the graffiti at bay in the city.  When we walked down the ally there were actually a few guys spray painting the wall!!

We eventually made it back to the hotel, where we were given about an hour to freshen up.  I bought an Internet username and password, because I had yet to have the opportunity to contact home.  Let me just tell you how expensive it was… 3$ for thirty consecutive minutes!  FML.  So I contacted home and messaged Kamron, so that we could somehow arrange to meet up during my one night stay in Melbourne.  Unfortunately Kamron had to work, so we were going to have to play it by ear.  I messaged him (he had already left for work), and I gave him directions to get to my hotel.

Dinner came, FINALLY.  I was more than ready for some food.  We walked around the block to the stellar Italian restaurant.  I got mushroom orzo.  Delish.  I am falling in love with orzo.  By this point in the night Jeff was getting a bit… well tipsy or domisvitch in Austrian!!  He was a hoot. He is an older guy, and to give you a visual image of him, he wore a dress jacket, dress pants, and tennis shoes!  Haha.  What a champ!

Then we were given the chance to either go back to the hotel with Prue or got to a pub, James Squire.  Of course I chose the pub – for two reasons: 1) who would pass up an option to drink, you can catch up on sleep from jet lag when you’re dead and 2) I needed anything to keep myself busy until Kamron got off of work.  After a drink or two, a few of the students went back to the hotel, and the remainder of us picked up a game of pool – girls v. boys.  We lost.  Oh well.  Then we decided to head back, where I had to entertain myself.  I decided to read as my roommate went to bed, in order to keep myself wake until Kamron got off of work. 

I bought (which I didn’t actually have to buy, because I only had a fifty and the hotel attendant didn’t make me pay) an Internet card to get in touch with Kamron when I knew he would be off work.  Kamron and I were finally able to get together.  He got off at 10, got back to his room by 10:30, and left to see me shortly after.  When he got there at 11:30 (mind you I have not slept in… well a very long time and then there is jetlag), we went out for beer.  I decided to run back to the hotel, and spend the night with Kamron.  I was a good roomie, and I left a note. 

When Kamron and I got to his apartment, I got to see Josef and Penn!!  Harry was asleep, so oh well!  It was so good to see everyone again – and especially Kamron, of course!  Kamron and I are working on him coming up to Mildura before he flies back to the States.  The timing worked out kind of perfectly.  I will be getting back from our weeklong field trip the same day he will be getting back from Sydney, so maybeee time is on our sides!

In the morning, Kamron went back with me to the city, and we grabbed breakfast and a coffee.  YUM!  Parting is such great sorrows… Kamron walked me back to my hotel, and I made it back to my room to check out.  I didn’t realize that Kamron still had my kindle, so unfortunately I will not be able to read any of the cool books I downloaded.  Excellent.

After checking out we started our journey from Melbourne to Mildura.  It was a long ride, and I was naturally tired.  I didn’t sleep on the ride though, because I wanted to be able to sleep through the night.  On our trip we made a few stops: Castlemaine and Beechworth Bakery in Bendigo.  We ate lunch at the bakery, and I had my first meat pie – steak and potato pie.  It tasted a lot like shepherds pie, which made me think of Meredith’s dining hall.  Haha.  What a place to think of while you are in a different country.  We checked into our hostel later that night, and a bunch of us made a run to the grocery store, because we were starving by the time we rolled into town.  We picked up some things for dinner, and some things to pack a lunch for the next day.  It’s wayyyy cheaper to pack a lunch to eat on campus, than to go out. 

I hit the sheets early that night, because I was exhausted from being a rebel the night before!  I actually slept through most of the night, and we didn’t have to be ready until 9am, so I slept pretty good considering.  We got up and left for a tour of the city with Jeff.  He took us around the Murray River, which separates Victoria (which is where Mildura is) and New South Wales.  We then made it to the Homestead, and I am not to sure what that is.  I wasn’t paying attention, go figure.  Haha.  After that we headed to the University, where Neil gave us a break down of out itinerary – I looveeee knowing what we are doing – the compulsive side of me coming out!

After that, we went over the requirements of the course, and we got our journals.  We are required to keep a journal during our stay.  It is really cool.  It’s all about getting the creative juices flowing!  There are no rules, except do it!  I am pretty excited about it, but I am worried about doing that and keeping a blog.  We will see how it goes. 

Next we headed back to our hostel, and got ready for our formal dinner at Stephanos.  It had to be five star!  We also got to try his wine and beer.  Of course, I was like sign me up!  It was free, and we were planning on going out afterwards, which wouldn’t be free.  Thus, I was pre-gaming in a sense.  During dinner we introduced ourselves, and listened to a few speakers.  As they were speaking, I realized that I had no idea what they were talking about, because I hadn’t been listening.  HAHA.  I blame it on the alcohol. 

At least I listen when it is important.  I have been listening to all of my lectures today, which is a good thing because I know nothing about photography.  I’ve learned more about a camera in the past few hours, than I’ve known from an entire lifetime of being a tourist photo shooter!  I’ve also learned a lot about how to process images too!  Very exciting!

After dinner, we went to a local pub, where I got a few beers with some of the students and some of the professors.  How cool is it that we get to go out with our professors?!  Awesome.  The. End. 

Well, time is of the essence, and I am finally caught up on this blog.  We are at lunch right now, and it is almost over!  EEK!  I do not have Internet at the hostel, so the only time I can get on the internet is at the university, and it’s only for a little bit.  Usually I get time during lunch, so bare with me.  It may take me forever to keep y’all posted.  We go to the Mungo National Park tomorrow, so stay tuned! 

I send loads of loveeee!

Apologies in advance

Okay, so I did write up everything from my travels (the last week or so in Australia, and my trip back), but I did them in a Word document.  I wasn't able to get on the internet while I was typing them up, so I had to wait to post them.  Thus, I am apolgizing in advance for the ten million posts that I have just posted.  I decided to brake them up so that they might be slightly more organized.  I hope their aren't too many errors.  Enjoy!

Twenty-four plus

I’ve decided that when you spend more than twenty-four hours in transit, everything becomes a bit hazy and your memories are nothing but a blur.  I have never had so much caffeine in my life to make sure that I stayed awake in an attempt to avoid jetlag.  I felt like I was cramming for my abstract algebra exam all over again.

My travels didn’t particularly start off on the right foot.  The wait began as soon as I arrived at the airport.  Luckily Kamron was able to join me for the first sector of waiting.  It began with actually checking in.  There was a forever long line, but good news, everyone – both of my bags were UNDER the required wait… awesome!  Kamron did run and get cappuccinos for the wait, so it wasn’t a total drag.  After making it through check in, Kamron and I hung out for a bit, and I filled out my customs form.  It was a good thing I left when I did because customs getting in to Australia were just as bad as leaving.  I was almost certain that I was going to miss my flight.  No worries though, I didn’t miss it!

I sat in the dead last row of the aircraft, but I had an aisle seat this time.  Thank goodness!  The people I sat next to were awesome as well.  They were both Australian, and they had both just turned twenty-one (they were excited about being of legal age in the US).  I spent most of my flight reading, and watching movies – nothing all that exciting.  Alas, I do have a funny story to tell y’all.  First off, crazy people just seem to be magnetically attracted to me.  After we had dinner, we got ice cream (well, it said ice cream on the menu – I was super excited… it was a sorbet bar – not the same).  Of course we opened it up as soon as we got it, and I want you to just picture what happened.  I will give your imagination a second to conjure up some ideas…  You may have guessed it, but the girl who sat next to me got her tongue stuck to the bar!!!  HAHA!  I tried so hard not to pee my pants.  Some of the flight attendants came to the back of the plane to help her.  She ended up pouring water on her tongue and the bar to get her tongue detached.  I couldn’t help but laugh!!!  I think the flight attendant thought I was evil, but the girl was laughing too, so no worries!

Other than that I cannot think of anything too exciting from that long "A" flight!  I did almost miss my next flight because customs took two hours.  Luckily I wasn’t bringing anything crazy back, or it could have been worse.  After I made my way through customs (and being asked to switch lines at least ten times), I had to drop my bags off for my connecting flight.  The lady told me that she wasn’t sure that my baggage would make it on the flight, and I was like ohh goodie!  Again, no worries.  I did make my flight just in time, and I saw my luggage being taken off of the plane while I was waiting to get off myself. 

After yet another set back (a delay added on to my three hour layover from Dallas to RDU), I finally made it home!  I accomplished a great feat by not sleeping unless it was night time in Raleigh.  Of course I was a bit exhausted when I got home, but it was worth it in an attempt to avoid jet lag.  I am going to try and continue my blog when I go back to Australia (in less than a week, whew)!  I fly out Thursday, so I probably will not post until after then!

Thanks for all of my die hard followers - or even followers who are not die hard.  Hehe.  I have also updated my shutterfly page with all of the remaining pictures that I have!  I am hoping to get some more from Kamron, because sometimes we just used his camera, so we didn't have to worry about lugging around two.  I am not sure when I will get those up, probably not until towards the end of the summer.

Last days in Melbourne

Kamron and I spent Tuesday recuperating from our early flight back from Adelaide.  We watched Californication and lounged around all day!  It was wonderful.  The weather didn’t help matters either.  Rain, perfect lazy weather.  We did eventually venture out to Highpoint to get a good coffee and some decent food.  Australia seems to have chocolate shop everywhere you look.  Kamron and I decided to try out the chocolate shop at Highpoint.  No words can explain how wonderful the cappuccinos tasted.  Coffee and chocolate, how cold you go wrong with two of the most wonderful inventions?! 

We then ventured out for dinner, where I had my first lamb burger.  Look at me trying all of these new meats!  What makes this restaurant awesome was that they gave you a free order of chips (which is what they call fries in Australia, weird, I know), if you could name the Disney character that said “fish are friends not food.”  Guess who knew it?!  MEEE!  I will give you a second to try and figure it out.  Pausingg… Bruce from Finding Nemo.  Hehe.  I’m a cool cat – duh! 

We looked around the mall for a bit after dinner, and then we made our way back to the computer lab so that Kamron could study some for his exam.  Wednesday, Kamron got up to take his exam, while I slept in!  Wohoooo!   Sleep!  We headed to the city when he got back to hit up an awesome café that we discovered on a trip to the city.  The coffee was cheap, but actually the best I had had so far.  Awesome find!  After heading to the café with Kamron’s friend Penn, we headed to Victoria Market, which was closed unfortunately.  In an attempt to not be too disappointed we looked around the city for a bit before me made it to the King Tutankhamun exhibit at the Melbourne Museum.  Soooo cool!  I even got some pictures, which was not allowed.  Hehe.  Such a delinquent! 

After searching some more, we were able to find another hole in the wall restaurant for dinner.  I got a pumpkin risotto.  They have so many pumpkin dishes here!  Why can we not have this in America?  Sheesh!  I could eat pumpkins until I turned into one! 

Next stop – the casino!  My first casino visit!  I didn’t win anything, and I got carded almost every time.  I cannot escape it, even in a foreign country!  We headed back early, because of my flight in the morning.  I unfortunately didn’t get to see Harry and Josef before I left, but I plan on visiting them some day in Austria.

Helloooo Adelaide

We did finally make it to Adelaide, and we did so on time!  For those of you who know how Kamron and I function, we are slow and seldom on time, but not today!  We were at the car rental place with a full tank of gas ahead of schedule.  After we dropped off the car, we made our way to some scrumptious coffees and muffins.  Next stop: Samantha Ramsdell!

Also, interestingly enough Kamron and I made it to Sam’s hall without getting lost!  Thank you, thank you.  We are growing up so fast (mom, what movie? hehe).  The campus where Sam is staying makes me think of Meredith.  It is beautiful.  I could see why Sam would want to go there.  We then made our way to the Cleland Wildlife Park, where I got to pet kangaroos!  Talk about cool.  Some of them were humungoid!  One gave me a high five – sounds cool, and don’t get me wrong it was, but it hurt.  They’ve got claws!  Not only did I get to pet and feed kangaroos, I got to pet a koala too.  YAY!  I officially got the typical Australian experience.  I saw a Tasmanian devil too.  Those are not cute creatures, let me tell you. 

Next we ventured to a footy game, but with no such luck.  We couldn’t find the field.  Sam’s university was playing their rivals, so there was going to be a party afterwards.  Because Kamron and I had to get up early the next morning, we ended up not going.  W did, however, get to see girls run around shirtless from the balcony of Sam’s hall!  After this rival footy game each year, it is a tradition for all of the girls to do that and for all of the boys to have their jocks ripped off (I didn’t watch this one haha).  It was fantastic getting to stay up and talk to Sam.  Kamron and I got to meet some of her friends as well.  They are all pretty awesome!  Agnus (I hope I spelled this right) even shared how Sam gets when she’s put back a couple.  Priceless. 

Now we are up to Monday.  Kamron and I went on a wine tour through Barossa Valley!  All wine lovers, be jealous.  Hehe.  Sam couldn’t come because she had class.  Lame.  But thankfully the tour only had a few people on it, so we got to take our time at each of the wineries.  I learned a lot about which particular kinds of wines I like.  The four wineries we visited were Chateau Dorrien, Grant Burge, Kellermiester, and Chateau Yaldra.

We ended up buying four bottles of wine.  Most of them were exquisite cellar door wines that are special to Australia.  The first winery is known for its mead, which is kind of like whiskey mixed with wine.  It tastes like liqueur in my opinion.  I didn’t really like it, but I am glad I had the opportunity to try it, since I cannot try it anywhere else.  I also learned about Ports.  Like how sparkling wine can only be called champagne if it is from Champagne, port wine can only be called port if it’s from Portugal.

A delectable light lunch was also included in our tour.  Some other stops on our way to the wineries were the world’s largest rocking horse where Kamron and I picked up some much needed coffee, the Herbig Tree where a family of eighteen once lived, and the Whispering Wall built at the Barossa Reservoir.  It was fun to learn about the history of Australia and its wine while we were on our tour, plus getting to taste all of the wine, of course!  Now I can say I’ve had quality wine!  I tasted a bottle of wine that cost over a hundred dollars a pop! Woah!

When we made it back to Sam’s hall it was around dinnertime.  We hung out for a little bit before we made our way to Mexican restaurant that Sam recommended.  She said the margaritas were top notch.  I was thinking that it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to have yet another drink after my slight wine buzz, but by the time we made it there I was ready for another.  Sam was right the margaritas were excellent and the food was delish!  Since I’ve been in Australia, I have learned that I love to eat and drink muchos! 

We called it an early night since Kamron and I had to be up by three am to make it to the airport in time for our six o’clock flight!  Talk about gross.

To the Grampians and beyonddd

Kamron and I decided that it would be a better choice to drive to the Grampians for a day, return our rental car the following morning, and then visit Adelaide (SAMMMM).  Needless to say we were pushing it for time.  Luck was not on our side as we started our public transportation to the rental car place.  We ended up barely missing two trams – no fun.  We finely made it out around noon.  We made the few hour trek to the Grampians information center to find out what the must sees were for the area.  Thank goodness we did, because of the severe rain storms that Australia had in January and February some of the road were closed.  The roads were covered in dirt from landslides.  This meant that we would have to make a couple hour trek to the sites instead of a forty-five minute drive.  That’s okay though because I got to see my first untamed kangaroo.  As we were driving through the Grampians, we saw a million free-range kangaroos.  Thus giving in to the stereotype that there are kangaroos all over the place.

We decided to stop off at the Beehive Falls, where we discovered that we could spend days hiking through the Grampians.  Bucket list item, I think yes.  There were so many great hiking and camping areas through out the Grampians!  We got some wonderful pictures.  After Beehive Falls, we traveled to the MacKenzie Falls and the Broken Falls.  Unfortunately, because of the bad rainfall, the lower view of MacKenzie Falls was closed.  Part of the path (which was a bridge) had fallen to rubbish.  Naturally, Kamron felt the need to explore down the path a bit, so we did.  We didn’t go to far because eventually we reached the non-existent bridge. 

Next we drove to the Boroka Lookout. By this time it was getting rather dark, so we couldn’t see much from the lookout.  It overlooked a few cities (Halls Gap I think), and would have been gorgeous during the day.  It was neat to see the cities lit up from above though.  Now the trek to Adelaide.  Whew.  We stopped at an Asian restaurant along the way, which was phenomenal!  It was a bit on the expensive side, but what isn’t expensive in Australia?  I can answer that.  Nothing.  Kamron and I drove through the night, in order to make it to the car rental place on time.  We didn’t want to get charged to an extra day just because we were over by fifteen minutes.  Because Australia is awesome, they post signs for taking power naps.  Most of them are along the lines of “microsleeps kill.”  Talk about giving someone motivation to pull over.  Dang.  Kamron and I stopped whenever we felt the slightest bit drowsy, since the “only way to cure fatigue is sleep” – also sign worthy in Australia.

Outback Tour

Where to begin... I decided to bring a journal with me, so that I would hopefully not forget anything, but I am sure that what I say here won't do this amazing trip any justice. 

Kamron and I took a trip to the Outback (which is central Australia - all desert - I didn't know this haha) with two of his friends from Austria, Harry and Josef.  We left for our flight to Alice Springs early Monday morning.  We took a cab to a pretty cheap hostel, while our cab driver warned us about the natives in central Australia.   The aborigines form gangs, and so it is not safe to be out at night unless you are in a large group.

After settling in to our hostel, we arranged for our pick up to begin our tour of the Outback - 6:10am Tuesday morning, off to an early start.  We then made our way to the city, composing two streets haha.  For lunch I had a kangaroo burger!  YUM!  It was tasty!  It takes just like stake.  Then we began our search for a cheap, but decent, pub.  We found a western looking pub that was called Bojangles.  Funny, huh?!  Unfortunately we didn't stay there.  It was far to expensive.  After finding a decent pub (right next door, we didn't have to travel far), we started our rounds.  After about six pitchers, I lost count.  I never thought I would be a beer drinker, but it is soooo much cheaper!  By the time it was starting to get dark, dinner was among us, so we were starting to get hungry.  We ordered chicken schnitzel (which is kind of like fried chicken, but nothing like the south).  Of course we had some more rounds with dinner, and I got a chance to play at the slot machines.  We didn't win anything, which is a shame.  We decided on our way back to the hostel that we should invest in some cases of beer, because it was probably going to be ridiculously expensive on the tour.  Against the warnings, we ventured for some cases of beer and wandered back to the hostel had a couple of more beers and headed to bed by 11pm - definitely early for us!

Time to get up came way to early!  Luckily we showered before bed, and we didn't have much to get together.  The bus was packed  and the roads were too rough to sleep.  It was about a two and half hour drive to Ayers Rock where we were camping for the night.  We made two stops along the way.  The first stop was at a camel farm where I got to pet a dingo, and I saw my first kangaroo!  Our second stop was at the geographical center of Australia, kind of cool!  Then we made a quick stop for firewood.  Of course, we had to pull the beers out along the way.  Between our first and second stop (8:15ish am), we pulled out our first round at the back of the bus.  Vollgas - which translates to "all the way" in German - also known as "go big or go home!"  Nothing like being the bad kids, sitting at the back of the bus drinking beer.  We arrived at the campsite in time for lunch and then headed to Kata Tjuta for a short hike.  Next we went to see the sunset on Uluru (which gave us another excuse for a beer).  When you watch the sunset on Uluru, the rocks seem to change color, and the sky changes color beautifully.  We got some great pictures of both Kata Tjuta and the sunset at Uluru (and of the rest of the trip), but I probably won't be able to post them on the shutterfly website until I am back state side (which will be a few days from now). 

Anyways, after the sunset, we made our way back to camp for dinner.  We had kangaroo steaks and camel sausage.  The camel sausage was shockingly delicious.  They don't taste that much different from pork sausage.  After cleaning up we sat around the campfire for awhile, attempting to keep warm.  If you are unfamiliar with the weather here in Australia, more particularly central Australia, I will fill you in.  The days are wonderful, perfect for hiking.  The sun is shinning constantly!  Now the evenings are freezing!  In central Australia the nights can get below freezing during winter.  We were camping outside on our tour with no tents.  Just a swag and a sleeping bag.  Kamron and I shared a swag, managing to squeeze two sleeping bags inside.  The stars were stunning, the weather not so much.  Before bed we were also given the chance to play the didgeridoo, which is a long tube looking instrument particular to the aborigines.  I wasn't all that successful in playing it (but I made noise haha).  Kamron was able to get a few notes out :) 

On Wednesday, we woke up before the sun and travelled to see the sunrise against Uluru.  Similarly to the sunset, the colors were awesome.  In an attempt to keep from getting dehydrated (from drinking beverages other than water...), Kamron and I made sure we had a number of water bottles before we started our hike for the day.  We hiked up Uluru after the sunrise.  We had the option to do a walk around the base or climb up it.  Naturally I was gung-ho, until I learned about the hike.  The aborigines ask each tour to ask the tourists not to climb.  Thirty-five people have died climbing Uluru, and the aborigines feel like it is their duty to keep people safe on their land.  Did I decide to hike up Uluru... well, yeah.  Despite all of the warnings, a small group of us from the tour (including but not limited to Kamron, Harry, Josef, an Australian named Michael, and myself).  The only thing to get you up the side of this mountain was a chain.  There were no steps.  Being the goober I am, I didn't pack my hiking boots, so I wore tennis shoes.  No worries, I made it alive!!  YAY!  It was totally worth it!  I was a bit worried of how I was going to get down, but it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought, and the view from the top was phenominal.  Nothing beats it.  When we got to the top of the chain, there is a bit more of a path, but it is only marked by a white dotted line.  After we got to the end of the trail (to the sacred part of the mountain for the aborigines) Kamron and Harry decided to venture to see the stone people!

After successfully making it down Uluru (and taking a number of pictures), the entire tour group did a short section of the base together.  It was called the Mala walk.  There are a number of sacred places along the walk where only the aborigines are allowed to go, and we were not allowed to take pictures.

After the walk we had lunch and made our way towards our next campsite, which was right outside Kings Canyon.  Our tour guide offered to drop us off at a pub right before we made it to the site, because we didn't have anything planned for when we got to camp.  Of course our posy took him up on the offer!  We had a few pitchers of beer, and that was all she wrote.  By the time he came back to pick us up, we all had had a bit to drink.  Dinner was delicious, which could have been because everything tastes good after you've had a good amount to drink.  Thankfully it didn't seem as cold as the night before, which could have been because of our drunken stooper.  After being calmed down from our biligerent selves, we managaed to listen to a star gazing shpeel from our guide.  It was cool being able to see an entire new set of stars from at home.  I got to see the Milky Way (Dr. Schmidt would be proud - I even knew some of the random facts that our guide was sharing.  I did learn something!).

Sleeping outside wasn't too bad because of the warm fuzzy feeling I had acquired from my drinks.  The boys spent their time before bed playing with the mice on site.  There were millions running all over the place.  You can see some pictures on the shutterfly page.

After being sung to sleep by our lullaby of choice, dingo howling, we got up to start our hike of Kings Canyon.  Kings Canyon is supposedly similar to the Grand Canyon, except it is smaller and was created in a slightly different way.  It was a gorgeous hike.  It started out a bit chilly, but as the sun began to rise the weather became perfect!  The hike took a few hours, including our many stops for pictures.  After we finished up, we headed back to Alice Springs - stopping for some lunch along the way. 

When we got back to Alice Springs we checked back into our hostel for the night, showered, and made our way to dinner.  Our tour guide was able to get a cheap meal for anyone on our tour if we went to this restaurant in walking distance.  Of course, we were game.  Instead of having to spend money on an expensive meal, we bought pitchers of beer.  How many... well I'm not sure.  We spent most of the night hanging out with people from our tour and our tour guide.  Our tour guide, Jimmy, was awesome, and he was super smart.  Like many Australians he decided not to go straight to college right out of high school.  He spent most of his time working and traveling, while he figured out what he would want to study when he actually went to college.  Come to find out many countries other than America encourage their students to take time to figure out what they want to do with their lives before entering college.  I thought that was pretty neat.  Australia also pays for their students to attend college, much like many other countries.  Jimmy told Kamron and me that they are in dire need for nurses and teachers before we even told him what we were studying at home.  Maybe we will go there for a few years! :)  The sky is the limit!!!

We did eventually make it back to the hostel, and we were all ready to crash.  We got up early on Friday to catch our flight back to Melbourne.  After grabbing a bite to eat for lunch on our way back to Kamron's, we planned our Grampians and Adelaide trip!

Oh my, this post is getting rather long, and I still have a day trip to the Grampians and my trip to Adeliade to cover, so I will hold off until another time.  I will right again soon!  I send my love and lots of hugs!  I will be there in person soon :)

Protest Crazies

Hello all!  It has been entirely wayyyy to long, but I have not had internet access for the past week and a half due to travelling.  I will have to fill everyone in on my trips in a later post, but I forgot to mention the rally that Kamron and I witnessed the day before we left on our tour of the Outback.

Well, Kamron lives right next to an immigrant detention center, so sometimes protests can get a little out of hand.  When Kamron checked his email the day before the protest, he found one saying that all of the residents shouls stay inside if they were around during the protest or pretty much just simply avoid the area.  Of course we forgot, and we walked right into it.  Kamron and I walked to Highpoint (the mall), and on our way back we found ourself mixed in with a number of protesters.  Luckily we were able to stick to the sides, and we had no problems staying out of the way.  Fortuntately we also just missed the protestors going nut-so!  There were about fifteen to twenty police officers on horseback and a number on foot.  The protestors thought it would be a good idea to beat the horses with their signs, and the police officers reacted.  One of the horses fell on a few of the protestors, and they claim police brutatlity... silly, huh?  That is pretty much it for that story.  I just thought it was funny - and crazy.  We don't usually see much of that at home unless we're in the city or maybe DC.

Cheers until next time :)

This story begins with I've been drinking a little...

My posts have gotten progressively ludicrous, but I suppose that isn't entirely a bad thing.  Well, Wednesday night we did go out.  We went downtown to a pub.  Harry and Josef bought us multiple rounds of beer, and we had some before we left.  I'm not sure how many rounds we had... I kind of lost track, never a good sign.  We had a great time though (from what I can remember).  Kamron got some great pictures and videos.  I probably won't post them for reasons I don't think I really need to explain haha. 

We spent Thursday recovering, to say the least!  Kamron and I spent most of the day laying around and watching some television shows that he had downloaded.  Now that I am sitting here trying to remember all of the things I planned on putting in this post, I am coming up with a blank...  Friday we partied a little more that night, while we planned for our day trip to Yarra Valley and Phillip Island on Saturday. 

Saturday morning, we made rented a car and made our way to Yarra Valley with Harry and Josef.  We stopped at the information center to figure out the best places to stop.  Kamron spotted a brewery on our way, so we stopped in for a tasting.  We ended up getting a six pack for twenty bucks (can you believe that?!).  The lady there gave us two bottles for free, and gave us a free tasting before taking us on our tour.  She was awesome.  She actually brews at home (which I have definitely thought hard about starting up), and said that is how the brewery she works at started.  It was neat to see how a small, hole in the wall brewery works.  The brewery was literally in a shed behind a junk yard, but the beer was great.  Kamron got a video of how the brewery actually runs, but I wont be able to post that until we get back from our trip this week.

We then headed to a trail in Yarra Valley.  The trail took us by a damn via "Rose Steps."  The steps were lined by rose bushes, that we unfortunately not blooming, because it is cold.  Lame.  We took our beers to the top of the damn with us.  Nothing beats a great beer after a great hike.  Be jealous.  Haha, just kidding - not about the beers, about being jealous haha!  It seems as though I've named my blog perfectly, because I do ramble...

Continuing on!!  We then made our way, practically flying, to Phillip Island.  We wanted to make it to the Penguin Parade by sunset, and time was definitely not on our side.  Thanks to Harry and his impressive driving skills, we did make it to Phillip Island in time.  The sunset over the island was beautiful.  We didn't get any pictures of it over the water, but it was still gorgeous. 

For those of you who don't know (I didn't know), Australia is know for this Penguin Parade.  Every three to five days a group of penguins come back from hunting.  At dusk, they make their way to the beach on Phillip Island in masses.  These penguins were everywhere!!  Nothing beats seeing these little penguins clump up and dart toward the bushes.  It was so cool to see.  We weren't supposed to take any pictures (keyword: supposed to).  Kamron, being the little delinquent he is, got some :)  After majority of the penguins made there way through the bushes, the other penguins came out to greet them!  It was a site to see!  We got to watch little penguins play, fight, and do other explicit activities (HAHAHA - I am a child).  By this time it was FREEZING, and we were ready to call it a night.

After picking up some dinner, we made our way back to Melbourne, where we threw in the towel rather early.  We were starting early Sunday morning.  There was a soccer championship game this morning at 4am, and yes we got up for it.  We not only got up, but we partied... at 4am.  I have to keep telling myself that it is okay to be a little on the crazy side, since I am on vacation.  The two teams that were playing were FC Barcelona and M. United.  Barcelona won, if y'all were curious.  There were tons of people who were completely gone.  One guy passed around a drink for everyone (there were tons of people there - thirty-ish), and it smelled like straight up rubbing alcohol.  Of course, I turned it down.  One, because who wants to drink something that strong straight up?!  Not me.  And two, I was not about to drink after a million random people.

After the game, Kamron and I slept some more.  We slept in pretty late, and then headed to the mall to go to his bank and grab a bite to eat.  We chose sushi for lunch, and I decided to try something new.  Bad idea - the end.  It wasn't too awful, but it wasn't a repeat.

I think that about catches y'all up to speed.  I need to go switch out some laundry, so we will have clothes to wear on our trip this week.  Kamron and I are headed on an Outback Tour with Harry and Josef.  We will be hiking (I didn't pack my boots, naturally) and sleeping outside in sleeping bags, no tent.  I am really excited to see the sky here with NO lights!  I will hopefully get some amazing pictures.  Whenever I think about seeing the sun set and rise over the Outback, I think of the Lion King haha.  It should be pretty.  After the Outback Tour, Kamron and I will be driving to the Grampians on our way to Adelaide to see Sam!  Very exciting stuff going on over here, down under.

I will update y'all as soon as I can - it will probably be a little over a week until I can post again.  Love you all!

Luck of the draw

Okay, well just about everyone knows about mine and Kamron's awfully bad luck. This was brought to my attention earlier this year (cough cough Joyce). I had never really thought about my luck being bad, because I was always thinking about how bad Kamron's luck was. Since I have learned about my unfortunate short comings in the luck department, I have seen it unfold before my eyes. Of course, there is nothing I can do about it, and I know that everything happens for a reason. I know that God has a plan for me. But consider this, Kamron and myself together means extremely bad luck. Today I discovered why.

The weather this morning was gorgeous. As Kamron and I made our way to the city, I reconsidered my choice of a heavy coat (luckily I didn't change into a lighter one because the sun decided to dissipate and the temperature seemed to plummet). This tale begins with Kamron discovering a way to cheat the public transportation system. It is about $7 for a daily pass on the tram. Kamron found out that you don't have to buy a ticket to get on the tram, but you better have one if the "tram police" get on and check everyone for their ticket. Of course Kamron (and now both myself and Kamron) have saved a lot of money by using this method. Wrong... well yes. This is where our awesome bad luck comes into play. Kamron and I are limited on our luck because we spend our time finding "short cuts."

First off, our tram was hit by a car today. No worries, we are both fine. The tram was fine, and we were on our merry way. Well, shortly after the collision a single tram officer got on. Dun dun dunnnn. Kamron usually keeps a look out so we could make a quick exit to avoid getting a pretty hefty fine. They usually travel in packs (which I was a witness to later in the evening), but of course we missed this one because she was alone. We were in the middle of the tram and were able to get off at the next exit as soon as we saw that she was checking tickets at the front of the tram. This was incident number one.

Kamron and I were able to hop onto the next tram, continuing our trip to the Botanical Gardens. They were beautiful, not as breath taking as the Great Ocean Road, but they were still nice. We started our walk with the Remembrance Shrine for the soldiers from WWI and WWII. It makes me think of all of the memorials in DC. I will post some pictures on my shutterfly website for y'all to see.

After the Remembrance Shrine, Kamron and I explored the actual garden part of the Botanical Gardens. I will also post some pictures from our walk on the shutterfly page.

This brings me back to our travels to and from the city. Kamron and I decided to take the train back to the suburb part of the city and then take a tram back to his flat. Needless to say here comes incident number two... hello mass of tram police. As they were getting on the tram, Kamron was like time to get off. I wasn't really sure what was going on, but we managed to slip by again as eight tram police were getting on. What in the world?! Twice in one day. Maybe we shouldn't ride the tram tomorrow because we have escaped twice too many! Luckily Kamron and I were not far from his flat, so we decided to walk back and pick up some dinner along the way. We had a fish and chip special for two :) It was tasty! Kamron had heard good things about it, but he hadn't gotten a chance to try it yet.

After eating dinner, Kamron made his way to class (deciding to take the bus this time around) and I made my way to the computer lab to update y'all on our adventures of today! Tonight is pub night, so we are planning on going out and celebrating our good fortune! I hope our risky behavior isn't too startling. We will be safe, and we will stay out of trouble!

I send much love!

Chinatown, anyone?

Whew… the past few days have been intense.  After attempting to tackle the internet and get these pictures uploaded, I’m drained!  Haha.  Today, Tuesday, Kamron and I went to Melbourne’s Chinatown.  We naturally missed our stop on the train (my first train ride, ever), so we decided to wonder around the city some.  We ended up at a cute little coffee shop that claimed to be for coffee lovers – count me in!  I got a short mac.  I’m not really sure what it was, but it sounded good and the woman working there drinks it regularly.   It came in this teeny tiny cup and was extremely strong.  That is one thing I’ve learned about the people here.  They all like their coffee short and to the point – like shots of liquor.  It was a bit strong for my taste, but it was delightfully delicious.  Kamron got a mocha, and I think that is what I am going to get next time.  We are planning on going back to the city tomorrow for some more exploring. 

While we were at the coffee shop, we decided it would be a good idea to figure out where we were on the map that I thankfully brought.  I have become quite the little navigator (even though we continue to miss turns and get momentarily lost haha).  We found where we were while we finished up our coffee, and we made our way to our original destination – Chinatown.  I have never been to the Chinatown in New York, but I imagine it is a bit more hectic than the one in Melbourne.  We went through a couple of different shops, as we searched for a place to grab a bite to eat.  Kamron heard the dumplings there were amazing, and boy was he right.  Mom, you would have been in Heaven.  They were delish!  We got some pictures of them (I know, I know.  Yes, Mom, we took pictures of our food.  No use stopping the tradition now.).  I’m not posting them on here, but I don’t want to be at the computer for twenty more hours!  I will try and post the pictures from today’s trip on my shutterfly page, but I might not be able to since they are on Kamron’s camera.  Because he is a goober, he doesn’t have his camera chord here with him.  His friend, Josef, has a sim card slot on his laptop, so he puts Kamron’s pictures and such on an external hard drive for him.  We will see if I can get my hands on that external hard drive.  Wow, I just rambled (no pun intended) for forever about something that y’all don’t (and I shouldn’t) care anything about!!  Haha.

Anyways, on our way back it started to rain.  It was perfect weather for me to cozy up and finish the new Sarah Dessen book, while Kamron went to work.  Alas, that is where I am now.  I am in the computer lab uploading photos to shutterfly and updating y’all :) I should head back from the computer lab, so that Kamron is not stuck out in the cold, because I have his keys. 

Hugs to you all and until next time!

Great Ocean Road Adventures

Today, Monday, it is cold and rainy.  Although all I would like to do is curl up in bed and finish my new Sarah Dessen book while Kamron is in class, I thought it would be awful of me not to share how things have been going the past few days.  I apologize for how long this post is, but it is mainly pictures :)

This past weekend, Kamron and I traveled to the Great Ocean Road.  It was breath taking.  Our trip did not particularly start on on the right foot.  We woke up later than we wanted to on Saturday, but we had already packed what we wanted to bring on the trip the night before.  Because Kamron and I tend to be cheap, we packed plenty of food for our trip and some alcohol (but only for the night - Driving on the left side of the road is hard enough; who knows how hard it would have been after a few drinks).  We packed a map - thank goodness, because we ended up lost (no brainer, we are talking about two directionally challenged goobers).

Kamron and I walked to the car rental place, which was an adventure in itself.  I had written out google map directions on how to get there, but I don't know if y'all know this, but google maps sucks.  I have been led astray many of times, but this goes back to not being able to get myself out of a wet paper bag.  Okay, back to the car rental place.  Who knew that you had to have a freakin' credit card to rent a car.  Not a debit card, a CREDIT card.  This goes without saying, but neither Kamron or myself had a credit card.  By the time we walk back to Kamron's flat it is around ten o'clock.  It was looking like this trip wasn't going to happen at all.  After arguing the entire way back (because that makes everything go smoother), we looked up care rental places in the city that didn't require us to have a credit card.  We looked at a few different sites (slowly because Kamron's internet has yet to move faster than molasses).  I scribbled down a new set of directions, and Kamron and I made our way into the city.  We did end up with a car, and a much nicer car than we would have gotten originally.  Kamron would kill me if I didn't post one of his many "car shots" (Mr. Lusk, that was for you hehe), so there is one of the many below.

This was when we first got to the Great Ocean Road - our first car shot actually there (we took one before the trip, but it's on Kamron's camera).  The picture is not the best, but I didn't want to mesmerize you with the first.  Plus I am trying to keep it slightly in order.

Oh I also forgot to mention that google maps failed us, again.  On our way back we had to resort to the city map that the car dealership offered us.  Bless their souls, because we would have never made it out of the city it weren't for that map!  This is the same story for making it to the highway that would actually take us to the Great Ocean Road.  By this time I was ready to call a quits, but it's a good thing we didn't because the trip was fantastic.  Kamron drove most of the way there, but I drove a little once we got there.  We took a few videos while we were driving.  Kamron thought it was fun to take the curves going faster than any normal human being would - even though it is not noticeable in the video below.

Here is me driving :)

Kamron and I did make it to a number of historical sites on Sunday, but our first pictures came from scenic lookouts we made it to on Saturday.  Some of them are below.

Saturday night we slept with the 12 Apostles!  We were up with the sun and got a number of beautiful pictures and of course a car shot.  Kamron and I are certain that our car shot could make it into a Mitsubishi magazine for sure!  Some pictures are below.

We then drove on to the Loch Ard Gorge, where we got some great pictures of the Island Archway, the Loch Ard Gorge Lookout, and the Loch Ard Wreck Site.  I am not sure the order that we looked at these, but they are all wonderfully candid.  Some of them are below.

Kamron and I are also juvenile delinquents.  We spent a lot of our time breaking the rules by jumping fences and stepping over barriers, but we got some great pictures and videos out of the ordeal.  Kamron claiming to touch the oldest rock at the Loch Ard Gorge:

The weather progressively got worse after we stopped at the Loch Ard Gorge, but no worries Kamron and I are troopers.  We still managed to get some decent pictures, while somehow managing not to get ourselves killed on our adventures in unmarked territory (well sometimes it was marked, but it was only marked to tell us to stay on the path which we ignored haha).  After the Loch Ard Gorge we stopped to see .  Again, I'm not sure which is which in pictures, but they are pretty just the same.

It was sad to travel away from the Great Ocean Road, but it was definitely time well spent.  Getting back to Melbourne didn't take nearly as long as we thought it would.  On our way back we stopped by the Cheese Factory.  It had a little museum, a restaurant, a convenient store, and a ritzy cheese and wine store.  The cheese in Australia is nowhere near as good as the cheese in America.  The cheese they do have is pretty expensive.  Lucky for us, this cheese was just as good as the cheese at home.  Kamron and I bought some vintage cheddar and brie, and we stuck around long enough for a cheese tasting.  One word: delicious.  We also got a milkshake and a chai latte (not as good as the one from Kamron's work). That was the last stop, before our stop to get gas on our way back.  Let me just tell y'all how lucky we are when it comes to gas prices.  Here it is $1.45 (give or take based on the gas station) per liter!  Outrageous!  That definitely put a hole in our wallets when we had to fill up the rental to before we returned it.

That is pretty much it for this past weekend.  Today we returned out rental (after waking up late, again haha), and I have been looking up some places we are going to try and go to in the city.  But I hope this post wasn't too awfully boring.  It took me forever to upload these pictures.  I've spent all day/night (and then yet another day) uploading them!   I rewarded myself with some time to read my book while it took ten million years.  I've uploaded more pictures to my shutterfly account.  It can be seen at the link: roamingrachael.shutterfly.com.  Enjoy!!  I send my love!